Ford Cammer: Inside Larry Goulds 427

text and photos by Jeff Burk

Larry Gould has been racing Ford 427 cammers as long or longer than
anyone in the history of drag racing. In 1974 he ran a best of 6.66
which tied Tommy Grove for the quickest elapsed times ever recorded
for a Funny car using a 427 Ford cammer for power. Even though Gould
eventually switched over to Hemi power in his Ford bodied floppers,
he never gave up his Cammer parts or his love of the engine.

Fast forward if you will to 1999 and the sudden nationwide interest
in Nostalgia front motored fuel cars. Fred Bach (left), reformed alcohol
dragster pilot, decides to go nostalgia racing; wants to get back in
the seat and has legendary St. Louis chassis builder Decent
Dawson build him a chassis. His long-time friend and fellow racer Larry
Gould has a storage shed in a remote location filled with blown cammer
parts and a desire to build and tune a nitro burning cammer again.

Now Larry (left) always was serious about his Fords and before he retired
his cammer after the 1976 season he even had some aluminum 427 cammer
blocks cast.

I knew that the cast iron blocks that Ford made needed some improvements
so I had some blocks cast up back in the early 70s,
Gould said. The foundry that cast them for me did a really bad
job and besides I was making the switch to the hemi so I just put them
away.

When Larry realized how serious nostalgia fuel racing had become he
decided that if he wanted to be competitive he would have to try and
manufacturer an aluminum cammer block again.

I had the molds that I had made twenty-five years ago so I found
myself a foundry that would pour them for me. When the foundry was done
I got in contact with Nick Arias Jr. and asked if he could machine them
for me. He did, and now Ive got four, brand new, re-designed,
Ford Cammer blocks for my hot rod.

As reported elsewhere in this magazine the front-motored dragster has
gone as quick a 6.59 / 226.34 on only the eighth pass on the car. Dont
bet against this car going into the fives at around 250.